"Oil is a more important factor towards victory in this war than in the last, since it is now used to produce synthetic rubber and explosives as well as fuel for planes, tanks, and ships, according to Kirtley F. Mather, director of the Summer School and professor of Geology in a current events lecture yesterday afternoon at the New Lecture Hall on "Oil and the Flow of War."

The Caucasian oil fields, which are almost within Hitler's grasp, would make up the Nazi oil deficit and enable the Germans to keep their war machine in high gear. If Hitler should be able to capture these fields, however, he would probably have to spend about ten mouths in repairing the refineries and oil wells which would be destroyed in accordance with Russian "scorched earth" policy.

Results of Caucasus Defeat

Even if the Germans should capture these fields, Professor Mather said, the United Nations would have about a year to fight while the Germans would still be handicapped by lack of fuel. The Russians, deprived of their Caucasian oil fields and refineries, could fall back on now wells which have been developed and large stores of oil which have been set aside.